The ice island will be entirely gone within 100 million years

Feb 10, 2012 16:39 GMT  ·  By
The image to the right shows the arrangement of continents around 100 million years from now, as proposed by the Yale team
   The image to the right shows the arrangement of continents around 100 million years from now, as proposed by the Yale team

In a paper published in the Februray 8 issue of the top scientific journal Nature, investigators at the Yale University showcase a scenario detailing how Earth's continents will rearrange themselves. We are currently right in the middle of a supercontinental cycle.

Such a cycle usually lasts for hundreds of millions of years, and this one is scheduled to conclude within 50 million years or so. At that time, both American continents, Eurasia and Africa will slam into each other over the North Pole, with Greenland right in the center of the new supercontinent.

The newly-born continent, made primarily out of sectors currently in North America and Asia, will be called Amasia. Interestingly, the Atlantic Ocean will disappear entirely. This is odd because it is the location where new crust is currently being formed, pushing the Americas and Eurasia further apart.

What is even more interesting is that Amasia will eventually center itself right where Africa is now, reclaiming the same position that the Pangaea supercontinent had at the end of the Permian Epoch, around 250 million years ago. The continent's dispersal coincided with the P-Tr. extinction event, Wired reports.